Gerald Freedman | |
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| Born | (1927-06-25)June 25, 1927 Lorain, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | March 17, 2020(2020-03-17) (aged 92) |
| Monuments | The Gerald Freedman Theatre at UNCSA (2012) |
| Education | |
| Title | Dean Emeritus, School of Drama, University of North Carolina School of the Arts |
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| Awards | Obie |
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Gerald Alan Freedman (June 25, 1927 – March 17, 2020) was an Americantheatre director,librettist, andlyricist, and acollegedean.
Freedman was born inLorain, Ohio, the son of Fannie (Sepenswol), a history teacher, and Barnie B. Freedman, a dentist.[3][4] His parents were Russian Jewish immigrants.[5] He was educated atNorthwestern University under Alvina Krause and others. He earned bothBA andMA degrees there.[2][6] He began his career as assistant director of such projects asBells Are Ringing,West Side Story, andGypsy. His first credit as aBroadway director was the 1961 musicalThe Gay Life. Additional Broadway credits include the 1964 and 1980 revivals ofWest Side Story,The Incomparable Max (1971),Arthur Miller'sThe Creation of the World and Other Business (1972), the 1975 and 1976 productions ofThe Robber Bridegroom, both of which garnered himDrama Desk Award nominations as Outstanding Director of a Musical,The Grand Tour (1979) withJoel Grey, andThe School for Scandal (1995) withTony Randall. He was also the off-Broadway director of therock musicalHair when it premiered at the Public Theater.[7]
Freedman was leading artistic director (1960–1967) and artistic director (1967–1971) ofJoseph Papp'sNew York Shakespeare Festival, artistic director of theGreat Lakes Theater Festival inCleveland, Ohio (1985–1997), and co-artistic director ofJohn Houseman’sThe Acting Company (1974–1977). He taught atYale School of Drama and theJuilliard School. He was Dean of the Drama School at theUniversity of North Carolina School of the Arts (1991–2012). He was the first American ever invited to direct at theGlobe Theatre inLondon.[1] He was a member of theKennedy Center New Play Committee and theCollege of Fellows of the American Theatre. He participated in the Oomoto Institute,Kameoka,Japan.[1] He died on March 17, 2020, at his home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina of kidney failure.[8][9]
It started when I went to Northwestern University and fell under the guidance of Alvina Krause, a former girl's gym teacher and eurhythmics instructor who seemed to have discovered Stanislavski and his techniques by accident, by curiosity and by observing the actors of the Twenties and Thirties. I still use many of her teachings in my work both professionally and in mentoring at the North Carolina School of the Arts. They are still valid. Alvina Krause reinforced in Art what I had learned from my Jewish parents in Lorain, Ohio. An unalloyed irreducible/inflexible respect for integrity of execution in all things. I arrived at Northwestern loaded with potential in skills, a hunger to learn about everything and boundless curiosity and energy. Alvina Krause guided me through a maze of possibilities to a clearer vision of who I was meant to be.
...he is a protegé of Alvina Krause at Northwestern University during the golden age of that famous theatre school; he presided over the golden era of John Houseman's Acting Company at Juilliard; he was artistic director during the golden years of Joe Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival; he was instrumental in the creation of a dozen musicals during the golden age of Broadway; he was artistic director of the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford during that company's golden vintage; last year, he directed Beckett'sHappy Days at an Istanbul on the Golden Horn of Turkey; and he recently staged a golden anniversary revival ofWest Side Story.
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